A Demonstration of using Partnerships and Private Lands Conservation to Evaluate Livestock Grazing as a Management Tool for Greater Sage Grouse in Central Montana

Partnerships across agencies and land ownerships established to maintain wildlife-compatible “working landscapes” are critical for conserving and managing wildlife in the West.  Preliminary results from the first three years of a 10-yr study in central Montana demonstrate this management approach.  We are evaluating prescribed grazing systems implemented by NRCS’s Sage Grouse Initiative (SGI) that are designed to improve hiding cover and food availability for Greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) during critical life stages via voluntary, incentive-based modifications of livestock grazing management.  Extensive vegetation sampling across 8 SGI-enrolled ranches and 20 non-enrolled ranches in 2013 revealed significant increases in residual grass height, live grass height, and herbaceous vegetation cover on SGI-enrolled lands. In 2011-2013, we monitored adult female sage-grouse and chicks with radiotelemetry to measure vital rates and habitat use. Annual hen survival ranged from 57-74 percent, nest success ranged from 12-61 percent, and chick survival ranged from 9-23 percent.  Using an information theoretic approach in program MARK, the top-ranked nest success model showed that grass height was positively correlated with nest success.   During late nesting to early brood rearing periods of 2012 and 2013 we used pitfall traps to collected ground-dwelling arthropods from cattle grazed and rest-rotation phase pastures enrolled in the SGI program. Collected arthropods were identified and appropriate specimens were classified as sage grouse chick food items. During both years of study, food item catches were greatest (P < 0.03) in rested versus grazed pastures indicating that strategic pasture rest may increase the availability of sage grouse chick food resources

Why Economics Does Not An Ethics Make: A Case Study

This essay is a multidisciplinary case study of environmental injustice. It demonstrates that misuse of the environment can ultimately impact humans unjustly and further that attempts to remediate injustice in one area merely shifts the burden of injustice to others. After providing the historical, sociological and scientific facts surrounding the 50-acre site, an ethical assessment is presented. It was determined that the actors in this case study were not employing any ethical valuing in their decision making process, but rather relied upon economic values to make their choices. The authors then suggest that judging them from within their own economic valuing system that the actors’ decisions had failed to meet their own values, i.e. good economics

A phase 2a, double-masked, randomized, vehicle-controlled trial of VVN001 in subjects with dry eye disease

PurposeEvaluate the initial ocular safety and tolerability and efficacy of VVN001 Ophthalmic Solution (VVN001), a small-molecule antagonist of lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1 (LFA-1), in subjects with dry eye disease (DED).MethodsThis was a multi-center, double-masked, randomized, dose-response, vehicle-controlled, parallel-group study conducted in 170 subjects with DED. Subjects were randomized to receive VVN001 (1% or 5%) or its vehicle, twice-daily in both eyes for 84 days. The primary outcome measure was inferior region corneal fluorescein staining (iCFS, 0-4 scale) at Day 84. Visual Analogue Scale eye dryness (VAS, 0-100 scale) was a secondary outcome.ResultsThe primary and first secondary outcomes were not met. At Day 84 treatment effects in favor of VVN001 5% relative to its vehicle for iCFS were 0.29 units (p = 0.054), and for VAS were 3.18 units (p = 0.533). In other secondary outcomes, treatment effects in favor of VVN001 5% relative to its vehicle were seen in total CFS (1.61 units, 0-20 scale, p = 0.004) and Schirmer score (1.77 and 2.32 mm, p = 0.049 and p = 0.17 at Days 14 and 28 respectively). Adverse events of incidence 5% or greater in either active treatment group were instillation site pain (3/57, 5.3%), dysgeusia (3/56, 5.4%) and urinary tract infection (3/57, 5.3%).ConclusionsThere were no major safety issues of note. Appropriately powered studies will be required with a priori selection of the efficacy endpoints to evaluate VVN001's therapeutic potential